The
original StarCraft real-time strategy game was released twelve
years ago, and went on to revolutionize computer gaming. The use of
three distinct races with their own unique units and gaming
strategies led to an explosion in LAN gaming, especially in South
Korea. Over eleven million copies of the games have been sold, with
millions more illegally copied. A dozen novels centered on the game
universe have been written, and it is still one of the most popular
in the world.

StarCraft
is particularly popular in South Korea, where professional players
and teams earn sponsorships and prize money through competition in
televised tournaments. Over 10% of the country's population of nearly
49 million still actively plays the game.

Blizzard
Entertainment hopes to recapture that success with today's launch of
StarCraft
II: Wings of Liberty,
the long anticipated sequel to the original masterpiece. Development
on the sequel started in 2003, but had been stalled due to the
resources needed for the World of Warcraft MMO. The company
eventually decided to split
the game up into three parts: Wings
of Liberty, Heart of the Swarm,
and Legacy
of the Void.

Wings
of Liberty follows protagonist Jim Raynor as he leads an
insurgent group against the Terran Dominion following the events of
StarCraft and the StarCraft: Brood War expansion pack.
The non-linear single-player campaign has the player taking on
mercenary jobs for money in order to buy additional units and
upgrades. There are key missions that will appear to explore the
storyline and keep it linear.

The
expansion packs will feature Zerg and Protoss single-player campaigns
to complete the storyline, as well as additional unit and multiplayer
maps. Full multiplayer gameplay with all three races is available out
of the box.

Graphics
are of course much improved over the DirectX 2.0 standard of the
original. Unfortunately, the drawn out development process meant that
the game was targeted for DirectX 9.0c, and lack the features of DX
10, 10.1, and DirectX
11. While the game looks good, it doesn't look as good as it
could be.

The
game is still capable of challenging graphics cards, especially at
higher resolutions like 1920x1200 and 2560x1600. ATI Eyefinity
multi-monitor technology is supported, and players fortunate enough
to have a Radeon
5870 HD Eyefinity Edition can game with up to six monitors.

Heavy
use of the Havok Physics engine and ability to use more units also
means that the game is more likely to be CPU limited. Although
StarCraft 2 is not multi-core optimized, players will still
see a boost from using dual- and quad-core systems.

The
original StarCraft
game made heavy use of LAN gaming as internet usage was not prevalent
or fast at the time of its release. Broadband internet access is now
readily available, so Blizzard has made the decision
to remove LAN gaming support. Gamers will be required to connect
through Blizzard's servers in an attempt to crack down on piracy.

StarCraft
II: Wings of Liberty
is available for sale in retail standard and collector's editions, as
well as for digital
download directly from Blizzard. MSRP for the standard
edition is $60, while the collector's edition sells for $100. It
includes a 176-page hardcover art book, a 2GB dog tag USB flash drive
containing copies of the original StarCraft
and Brood
War
expansion, a soundtrack CD, and a DVD with interviews and additional
cutscenes.

In
an unusual marketing move, Blizzard announced that South Korean
players would be able to play StarCraftII
for free as long as their World
of Warcraft
subscriptions are active. Retailer K-Mart is currently offering a $20
gaming coupon on in-store purchases of the game through the end of
the month.

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The moaning about piracy has driven me from gaming as well as from buying just about everything I don't need. Starcraft 2 looks great but the lack of love from Activision/Blizzard for Starcraft 1 and World of Warcraft tells me to seek life elsewhere.

Milking Starcraft into a trilogy, lack of LAN, Battle.net/DRM, I'll pass easy. Developers are not entitled to my sale and there is no law (yet) that says they are.

If you take/use a product without paying for it you ARE a thief. If you don't think the game is worth it's price or don't like it doesn't have LAN fine...that doesn't justify downloading the game and playing/using it for free. Software is nothing like free speech.

You can calling illegal copying theft all you like, it will never make it true. The infinite number of copies producible at ~$0 is the difference.

You seem to be unfamiliar with open-source software and the GPL which is where the "free as in speech" expression comes from (and the BSD license which is "free as in beer"). Might I suggest you broaden your horizons given the profession you are in?

Obviously you are the one who are unfamiliar with open source, given your faulty description of the two most common OSS licenses.Also, people who actually contribute to open source tend to be far more respectful of others rights to their property than people who merely want to use open source because it's free as in beer. You certainly seem to belong to the latter, you neither understand the ideals behind open source, nor do you respect others right to keep their software closed if they so choose, all you want is a free lunch.Go away, neither camp wants you.

Oh I am very respectful of property rights, which is why I am very particular about not applying the word "theft" or "steal" to illegal copying. I already pointed out the difference which you surely understand as well. You might have me pegged as a purveyor of illegally copied software which couldn't be further from the truth.

Indeed I do contribute to GPL projects and am quick to point out there "nothing is free" is completely false and that there IS such a thing as a free lunch! Unfortunately, you may also know as I do that these opinions don't go over well on this site.

I'm not sure where you think my description is faulty - "free as in speech" and "free as in beer" are the most common layman's way I know of that describe those two open-source licenses and I've heard them in conversation hundreds of times in person and online... Where is my mistake?

I'm probably going to pirate until it's out in a "Gold" or "Battle Chest" edition that has all three for $4.95 on Steam. Hopefully by then, someone will have patched the lack of netplay, whether it's Blizzard or someone else.

That's if I even want to play it. I've never enjoyed RTS much, and certainly not random online play with cheaters from Korea or who knows where. Actually, I only EVER liked Starcraft when playing it over the LAN way back in the dorm days.

I won't even like the stupid game, so I'm just going to waste my time playing a pirated version to teach Blizzard a lesson. That'll show em. As long as you don't really even WANT to play the game, it's OK to not pay for it.

I sure as heck don't want to play against those dweebs that eat, sleep, and breathe Starcraft every day, because what fun is that? But in all honesty, I'm just too lazy to bother making private games and inviting my friends to join.

Have fun paying $100+ total for all three parts of the game.

Uh, sure...that may not be what you were meaning to say, but that's how it read to me.

But yeah, I probably will have lots of fun paying over $100 for all 3 games if the last 2 are as good as the first. The Terran campaign is awesome, and I feel like I've gotten more than my $60 worth compared to the other crap games that reach blockbuster status these days. I'm not even an RTS fan myself...haven't played them (or wanted to) since the days of Warcraft 2, C&C: Red Alert, and Starcraft.

Of course, I won't jump at the next 2 unless/until they're decently priced, because the replay value is in the multiplayer, afterall.

But sorry, it's not "a" game. There is way too much content in this release to call it anything other than a full game. I mean, maybe if you had it and knew what the f you were talking about, we wouldn't be having this convo.

I am in the same boat Starcraft I was Warcraft II with space tiles compared to games like Total Annihilation(the all time best game of the genre) at the time it wasn't that great of a game IMHO. Now Diablo III thats a different story all together.